The Greek ambassador to the OSCE, Mr Haralambos G. Manesis became the first representative of the Greek state to officially receive yesterday
a copy of the Macedonian Primer “Abecedar”, during the annual OSCE Human Dimension Implementation Meeting in Warsaw. This initiative of EFA-Rainbow
comes as an answer to the recent allegations of Greek officials that no Macedonian Primer has yet circulated and was received warmly by the other
delegations.

The representative of EFA-Rainbow stressed in front of the 50 member state and numerous non-governmental delegates:

“We, the members of the Macedonian community in Greece, have made the first step towards the recognition of the Macedonian language in our country
by publishing this book. Even though we believe that the Greek state should have taken this initiative as is standard international practice, we
still want to urge our government to finally introduce the Macedonian language to the state educational system.”

In their interventions during the Working Group Session on Ethnic Minorities at the OSCE Meeting, EFA-Rainbow and Home of Macedonian Culture
delegations emphasized on the fact that Greece still follows an unacceptable policy, when in comes to ethnic and linguistic diversity.

EFA-Rainbow would like to hope that this symbolic gesture and the publication of the Macedonian Primer will eventually make the Greek state revise
this policy and follow at last the international and democratic practices on the protection of human and minority rights.

The Press Office of EFA-Rainbow

The representative of EFA-Rainbow presents a copy of the Macedonian language Primer to the Greek Ambassador to the OSCE, Mr Manesis.